Artwork

明/清楊昇(僞款) 關山小雪圖冊頁|Light Snow on the Mountain Pass

明/清楊昇(僞款) 關山小雪圖冊頁|Light Snow on the Mountain Pass is an ink painting. It dates from 1639 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This album leaf, titled Light Snow on the Mountain Pass, is a Chinese painting from the Ming or Qing dynasty.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

The depiction of mountain and snow functions as a visual motif within the composition, emphasizing the aesthetic and cultural concerns of the period.

The work shows a snow-covered mountain pass, rendering a winter mountain landscape typical of Chinese painting. Its subject is a stark mountain scene blanketed in snow, an iconography noted in the catalog entries. As a 17th-century album leaf painted in ink and color on silk, it belongs to the landscape genre and reflects the tradition of depicting natural topography in Chinese art.

The depiction of mountain and snow functions as a visual motif within the composition, emphasizing the aesthetic and cultural concerns of the period.

Technique & Style

The work is an album leaf painted in ink with subtle color on silk, a format intended for intimate viewing. Executed circa 1639 in China, within the late Ming period, the piece belongs to the landscape genre and depicts a mountain pass blanketed in light snow, rendered with delicate tonal gradations and a restrained palette that emphasizes atmospheric depth. The composition balances sparse brushwork with occasional color washes, and the silk support contributes a luminous surface that enhances the subtlety of the ink lines and color accents.

History & Provenance

The album leaf is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is recorded as Light Snow on the Mountain Pass. Its accession number is not specified in available documentation. The work has not been recorded in any documented exhibitions according to current institutional records.

Context

The album leaf titled Light Snow on the Mountain Pass, dated circa 1639, depicts a secluded mountain pass blanketed in snow, executed in delicate ink and light color on silk. Painted in the late Ming period, it bears a spurious attribution to the earlier painter Yang Sheng, a common circumstance in Chinese painting, where works were ascribed to admired masters. Its inclusion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection reflects scholarly interest in such attribution questions and in the tradition of the snow-landscape album leaf.

Overview

This album leaf, titled Light Snow on the Mountain Pass, is a Chinese painting from the Ming or Qing dynasty. Executed with ink and color on silk, it depicts a tranquil landscape. The work is attributed with a false signature to Yang Sheng, a detail that speaks to its complex history and the practice of artistic attribution in historical Chinese art. It is currently housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.